b. Remembering exposed cards and ghost hands

By remembering all exposed cards, a player increases his accuracy in estimating investment and card odds. In games with many players (eight or more), discarded and folded cards are often redealt. Knowledge of those cards can be crucial for estimating meaningful investment odds. In some games, discarded and folded cards are actually placed on the bottom of the deck without shuffling. (The good player encourages that practice.) If those cards are redealt during the late rounds, the good player will know what cards are to be dealt to whom… a huge advantage for the later rounds of big bets.

With disciplined concentration and practice, any player can learn to memorize all exposed cards. For the discipline value alone, remembering exposed cards is always a worthwhile effort. But many players excuse themselves from this chore by rationalizing that memorization of cards dissipates their concentration on the other aspects of the game. That may be true when a player first tries to memorize cards, but a disciplined training effort toward memorizing all exposed cards will ultimately increase his concentration powers in every area of poker.

Remembering the exposed draw hands or the order of exposed stud cards from the previous deal can bring financial rewards. Old hands often reappear on the next deal (ghost hands), especially when the shuffling is in complete (the good player encourages sloppy and incomplete shuffling). For example, a good player is sitting under the gun (on the dealer’s left) and needs a king to fill his inside straight in five-card stud. But the last card dealt in that round (the dealer’s card) is a king. The good player, rather than being discouraged, recalls that the winner of the previous hand held three kings. Since the deck had been poorly shuffled. the chances of the next card (his card) also being a king are good. Knowing this, he now has a strong betting advantage.

John Finn memorizes all exposed and flashed cards He mentally organizes every exposed stud card into one of the four following categories by saying to himself, for example, Sid’s two of hearts would help—

• my hand
• his (Sid’ s) hand
• another opponent’ s (e.g., Quintin’ s) hand
• no one’ s hand

That association of each card with a definite hand not only organizes John’s thoughts but also aids his memory.

Now if Sid folds and his two of hearts is the first card to go on the bottom of the deck, John will remember that the fifty-third card is the two of hearts. Then by mentally counting the dealt cards, John will know when and to whom the two of hearts will be redealt. By that procedure, he often knows several cards that will be redealt. For example, he may know the fifty-third, fifty-fourth, fifty-seventh, sixtieth, and sixty-first card…. The cards he knows depends on how the folded cards are put on the bottom of the deck.